"The campaigns of the people are weak only when the hearts of women are not recruited to carry them out. But when women step in and help, when the naturally shy and quiet woman stands up and applauds, when the cultured and virtuous woman annoints the task with the sweetness of her affection, the campaign becomes invincible."
-José Martí

The Wall St. Journal / January 29, 2012

CUBA AND THE CASTRO NEWS
FILTER
by Mary Anastasia O'Grady

Stories about 'reform' make headlines while a dissident's
death goes unreported.

Investment companies that provide market analysis are required by law to
disclose potential conflicts of interest that could bias their reports. Imagine
if media outlets were forced to do the same with stories filed from inside
Cuba's military dictatorship. Their disclaimers might read like this: "This
report was prepared under psychological duress, threat of loss of journalistic
credentials, imprisonment or expulsion from the country, and while being spied
on 24-7."
Tourism, aka "cultural exchanges," out of the U.S. to the island is on the
rise, leading some observers to conclude that the dictatorship is kinder and
gentler than it used to be. But all visitors, and those they interact with in
Cuba, are as carefully watched as they were in the first days of the revolution.
In the news business, reporters are not permitted to travel freely, and it is
verboten to damage the image of the Castro government. Penalties can be
severe.
This reality came to mind last week when we learned of the death of another
dissident at the hands of the regime. Thirty-one-year-old Wilman Villar Mendoza,
who was arrested in November, had been on a hunger strike for at least 50 days.
His imprisonment was part of a wider wave of state repression that has been
under way for more than a year amid a rising number of public protests,
particularly by young people.
Yet while Raúl Castro's announcements about "reform" have made headlines and
topped television news around the globe, we had hardly heard of Villar Mendoza
or the resistance movement he belonged to.
Apologists for the status quo will tell you that Cuba's democracy movement is
not news because the number of Cubans who would rebel given the right
encouragement is insignificant. But if Cuba is an island of contentment, why do
the Castro brothers go to such lengths to make an example of dissidents like
Villar Mendoza and pressure local news bureaus to ignore the repression? There
is a reason journalists who want to stick around know they'd better find
something else to write about.
Villar Mendoza's case was especially hard to learn about because he lived in
the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. The east is one of the most repressed
areas of the county, perhaps because it is where, historically, uprisings in
Cuba have originated. Now, despite the tight grip, it is again becoming the
hotbed of antigovernment protests, united by a coalition known as the Eastern
Democratic Alliance. But since there are no embassies there and reporters may
not leave Havana without permission, the magnitude of the eastern rebellion is
not recognized by the outside world.
The story has gotten out thanks to Cuba's independent journalists and
human-rights advocates, operating on a shoestring and at great personal risk.
They use cellphones and sometimes computers when they can sneak under the radar.
They've reported that on Nov. 14 Villar Mendoza was beaten and arrested for his
part in a peaceful protest march in his hometown of Contramaestre. Ten days
later, in a summary trial, he was sentenced to four years in prison. When he was
refused an appeal, again without due process, he began a hunger strike. His
jailers at Aguadores prison responded by stripping him, throwing him in a dank
solitary confinement cell, and denying him water. He came down with pneumonia
and died of sepsis.
Given the history, the account sounds plausible and gains credibility from
the regime's intensive damage-control efforts. The Castros allege that Villar
Mendoza was a common criminal. This is standard procedure: In fact the regime
claims there are no "political" prisoners in Cuban jails—only criminals.
Former Cuba correspondent for Spanish Television, Vicente Botín, describes
how hard it is to report the truth from the island in his 2009 book "Funerales
de Castro." He reminds readers that in 1997 Fidel expelled a French journalist
for writing that Cuban chickens were not meeting their government egg-laying
quotas. In 2007, the regime withdrew the credentials of three foreign
correspondents from the Chicago Tribune, the BBC and the Mexican daily El
Universal for lack of "objectivity." "The three journalists were scapegoats used
to warn their colleagues in the foreign press of the dangers they run if their
'objectivity' does not coincide with that of the government," Mr. Botín
notes.
Sebastián Martínez Ferraté didn't fare so well. In 2008 he used a hidden
camera to document Cuba's epidemic of childhood prostitution, and the report
aired in Spain. When he returned to the island in 2010, he was arrested and
sentenced to 17 years in prison. Spain only recently negotiated his release.
As Mr. Botín explains, the regime goes out of its way to make sure that
journalists know that they are being watched and no one working in Cuba is under
any illusion about a free press. Yet when foreigners watch "news" from the
island they are likely, through force of habit, to put their trust in the
messenger. Maybe the news organizations should start running that
disclaimer.Write to O'Grady@wsj.com

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ABOUT THE COALITION

The Coalition of Cuban-American Women is a non-governmental organization whose membership is devoted to denouncing human rights violations in Cuba and disseminating information about those violations throughout the world. In addition, the Coalition advocates for the Cuban people, in particular peaceful members of the opposition movement in Cuba, political prisoners and their families, women, and children whose human rights are denied by the Cuban government. Begun in September, 1995, The Coalition is based in Miami, Florida, but its membership includes women from across the United States and Europe.

The Coalition is responsible for translating and disseminating articles, letters, and testimonies written by prominent dissident leaders in Cuba that highlight human rights violations and other acts of repudiation carried out against them by the Cuban government. Members of The Coalition regularly speak at academic conferences and before international human rights organizations, such as the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of the Organization of American States.